Google – Introducing Gmail Blue

Google – Introducing Gmail Blue

[Richard Pargo – Product Manager] Source: LYBIO.net
Gmail Blue was part of the intial conception for Gmail when it was launched. At the time the technology was simply not there.

[Carl Branch – Lead Engineer]
The culture of Google really is to incorporate moon shot thinking in every project.

[Dana Popliger – Lead Designer]
It’s taken us 6 years to develop the technology to achieve Gmail Blue.

[Carl Branch – Lead Engineer]
Our major challenge was, how do we make this intimate, intuiative, realistic and organic?

[Richard Pargo – Product Manager] Source: LYBIO.net
In trying to bring Email into the 21st century we were faced with a challenge how do we completely redesign and recreate something while keeping it exactly the same. The answer is Gmail Blue.

You click on COMPOSE. Compose, the button blue. The word itself – Blue.

Bold face is blue. Underline, is blue. Italics is blue as well.

You write in the body of the email, the font comes up blue, you don’t have to make it Blue, it is Blue. It just is Blue.

The little lines, they’re in blue. When you go into help it’s blue.

It’s Gmail, only bluer.

We experimented with a lot of different colors.

We tried orange, brown. Brown was a disaster. We tried Yellow.

The inspiration of blue came from nature.

Ocean, sky, blue whales.

A blue that was reminiscent of nature but better than what nature created.

Gmail blue, it’s just uh, it just opens a lot of doors that haven’t been opened before.

I think the first thought that’s gonna come to the end users mind – Is I can’t believe I waited this long for this.